I’m nothing but a payment, bartered to the most powerful cartel in the northern hemisphere and forced to marry a man I do not know. My father sold me to save his own skin. He might as well have ushered me to the gates of hell. The Marino family is sadistic. If rumors are true, they’ll own me, use me, control me, and strip me of every freedom I’ve taken for granted. I’ll be a shiny new toy in a dark and deadly underworld. So when my husband drops the bomb that our arranged marriage is only a means to an end, I realize there’s something worse than merely being a possession. My stupid, stupid heart. In the end, the last thing I expected to do was fall in love.

My son and I are in danger. The life and death kind. The kind that forces me to make choices no mother should have to. I’ll do anything to keep my son safe and not sacrifice my responsibility to my patients. I’m desperate. Desperate enough to beg broody Special Agent Micah Emmett for help. But he has a job, and it doesn’t include protecting me. Why should he? He doesn’t know me. Or so I thought. Because you can learn a lot about another person when they’re being tapped. And Micah has been watching me for a long time. Now the special agent is glued to my side. And I've been tapped in more ways than one.

One day, I was chugging along at life as a wedding planner. The next, I’m a confidential informant and fake engaged to the grumpiest DEA agent on earth. Hit the brakes. Let’s back up. You know those sappy made\-for\-TV movies where the leading lady gets the unsuspecting knock on the door and is the beneficiary of a massive inheritance? That’s me. I’m that heroine. My name is Goldie Carter, and inheriting The Pink—one of the most historic and grandest estates in Miami—would be a dream come true for any gal, but especially me. I’m a true romantic. I believe in soul\-wrenching love so deep, to have it ripped away would physically hurt. But I’m still waiting for my prince charming. And life isn’t so golden at the moment. Money, greed, and cartels have a way of forcing love to the backburner when a surprise half\-brother rears his ugly head. Enter Kingston Jennings, Special Agent for the DEA—and quite possibly the crankiest man I’ve ever met. That’s how I got to where I am right now. Fake engaged. And falling in love. Little did I know, I don’t need a prince charming. I need a King.

My wannabe friends\-to\-lovers story is an embarrassing disaster. It all started when I took a chance on love and made a move on the older guy I’ve been obsessed with for years. I experienced something so humiliating, I’m desperate to bleach it from my brain forever. I’ve spent every day since pretending it didn’t happen. That it didn’t matter. That it didn’t hurt. Rocco Monroe came to live with my family when he was eighteen. His bedroom was across from mine. We were friends. He became the son my father never had. When I tried to change our status, he shut me down. He said I was illicit … a forbidden drug formulated just for him. And that’s saying something since he’s a DEA agent. So I cut him out … severed all ties. What I didn’t know was that while I was trying to forget him, he became addicted. To me. The moment he found an opening, he pushed his way back into my life. But my shattered heart might not survive another break. I have two choices. Keep my orderly, Rocco\-free life. Or risk everything for the chance to have it all. That is if our families don’t kill us first. You know… figuratively. And literally.